Yuri Kato, author of “Japanese Cocktails” and publisher of the website CocktailTimes.com, showed me how to mix a mizuwari, a drink that often accompanies sushi in Japan. It looked like whiskey on the rocks with a splash of water. But like many things Japanese, it wasn’t that simple.

Japanese bartenders, Kato said, take pride in the subtleties and rituals of the drink, just as American bartenders do with the martini. The mizuwari, according to Kato, must be stirred ten and a half times. And only oversized ice cubes will do.

“The way the ice melts,” she said, “is very important.”

Of course, the spirit must be high quality. Kato used Hibiki 12, a blended Japanese whisky (the Japanese prefer the Scottish spelling without the “e”) that entered the American market last year. Nearly 30 different whiskies, including some aged in Japanese oak and plum wine barrels, are blended and then filtered through bamboo charcoal. The oldest whiskies in Hibiki are more than 30 years old. It’s produced by Suntory, which was founded at the end of the nineteenth century.

“Suntory is almost like Coca Cola in Japan,” said Kato. “We have so much respect for the company.”

At first, Japanese whiskies were smoky like Scotches. Over time, Kato said, they adapted to local taste and became softer and less peaty.

“In Scotland,” she said, “there is a tradition to keep the tradition. In Japan, they respect the tradition, but also try to produce something new.”